Sunny Sunflowers

I started a new quilt this week.  I am painting sunflowers. We had a couple of nice warm days and then it got cold again. I decided not to wait for the summer flowers to show up, but to make my own flowers.  I love sunflowers of all kinds and have planted bright sunny yellow ones and also the autumn colored flowers.  Maybe I should try planting them again this year, when it finally gets warm.

I am still working in my art journal and have completed a couple new pages.  This page was just about playing with a couple of techniques.  My journal is getting really full, so the pages are harder to photograph.  That's okay with me though because I love having full chunky journals.    

This page is from a Lifebook lesson.  It was fun playing with gold leaf.  It adds a lot of shine to the page and I really like shiny on my art journal pages. 

My art quilting group learned about fabric painting this week. I sketched the flowers out on cotton fabric before the meeting.  I have been working on painting all week.  I still want to add some more details to the flowers and I need to paint the background too.  After all the painting is done I will start thread sketching and then quilting.  I'll keep sharing my progress.   

Have a great weekend and live your life creatively.

Janelle

Art Journal Groove

I have finished a couple more lessons from Lifebook that I wanted to share.  This one was all about celebrating your favorite things. It is always good to remember the things that make life good.  The background for this page was created with watercolors that feel chalky when they are dry.  They do make a nice soft look and were good for this page.  

The next three pages were lessons from Lifebook also.  They were all quick exercises in intuitive painting without worrying about the end results.  The point was to tap into your inner child and have fun with the process.  They all has time limits as well.  They were painted at 15, 10, & 5 minutes respectively.

This first one was a finger painting with the addition of a few more tools.  I used my basic acrylic paints. 

This one is painted with Golden acrylics with a brush and a rubber painting tool.  

This page was painted wet into wet with Twinkling H2O watercolors.  They have a beautiful shimmer that the photo doesn't capture at all. These are my favorite watercolors and are so fun to use. 

I created this page using my church bulletin after Divine Mercy Sunday last Sunday.  I used a stencil from Artistcellar that went perfectly with the subject.  It is done with modeling paste and the colors from the background colored it slightly.  

I have been having fun painting in my journal.  I am getting close to finishing this one.  I'll probably be making a new journal this summer some time.  I love filling up these journals, it is so relaxing to have a safe place to practice and process life stuff.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Janelle  

The benefits of happy

Hello Everyone,
It is finally starting to get warm here and feel a bit more springlike.  The warmth makes me happy, that and my hubby has been home for his spring break this week.  Spending a week together while the kids are at school most of the time is always nice.  Being a teacher he doesn't get to choose when his vacations are, but at least he has enforced breaks.  Life has been feeling good lately.  I'm trying to dwell on the happy instead of the rough things that we face.  I don't ignore the bad parts, but I'm trying not to worry and just take each day and really see the good parts. 

I hope that you too can focus on all the good that comes your way and be happy.  Sometimes that isn't easy, but I think that we benefit so many ways when we don't dwell on the negative all the time.

I have been working on some more journal pages lately.  I think that they show that my mood has been pretty good.  I love using colors and subjects that make me happy.  These are all from Lifebook lessons, so I didn't choose the concept.  I did choose colors and themes that have meaning to me though.  I love taking a lesson and personalizing it.  

I gave my happy puppy a nice bright background.  I mixed browns, greens, and gold for the ground. Most of the background was finger painted.  I still love the feel of finger painting like I did when I was a kid.

  

This one is all about my inner and outer world.  I made a collage that had meaning to me and I used a face that I had painted previously.  I made a color copy of a painting.  I think that if I would have used a bigger face it would have been easier to paint over it.  Next time I will do that. 

This is my favorite lesson.  It was interesting using more black and white and a less shaded face.  I also love the pops of bright color.  This one was just fun to do.  I still want to work on the 3/4 face, so that I can draw them better.  I feel that I am making progress on my faces. 

How does your mood affect your creativity?  

I hope that you can have a great weekend and be happy.

Janelle     

Beautiful Yarn

I can teach you how to dye gorgeous fabrics and also unique yarns.  I dyed some skeins of cotton yarn recently, so that you can see the possibilities of creating your own beautiful yarn. The process is the same as for dyeing fabric.  I am using fiber reactive dyes for plant fibers; cotton, rayon, linen, hemp, bamboo, etc.  I also love dyeing threads, ribbons, lace, doilies and many other fibers.   

This is the class that I teach at the local museum.


Try Dyeing Fabric
2 Saturdays: April 25, May 16
10 a.m.—1 p.m.
Instructor: Janelle Marks
Cost $35 / Member $30

Are you a quilter or a knitter? Learn how to dye and decorate your own fabric and yarn to use in your creative endeavors. Price is per workshop. Supply list provided.
http://ellasharpmuseum.org/?page_id=643

I am also available to hold a class for individuals or groups. Just send me an e-mail to set that up. 

Do you crochet or knit?  What are your favorite things to make out of beautiful yarns?

I would love to hear from you.
Janelle

Coloring Like a Kid

This week the art quilting group that I participate in, tried another technique.  We got to color like kids with crayons.  It was a fun technique to play around with.  Instead of coloring on paper we colored on cotton fabric.  We used wax crayons and colored pencils.  I drew free-hand on my square of fabric with a graphite pencil.  I did look at some drawings of flowers for inspiration.  Inspiration is a wonderful thing.   

After I drew the design, I colored it in with crayons and a bit of colored pencil. I used a hot iron and paper towels to melt and remove most of the wax while leaving the color behind.  I found quite a few tutorials about the process on-line if you are interested in trying it yourself. 


Now for the pictures. 

Next time I use this method I would make sure some things worked better.  I ironed freezer paper onto the back of the fabric for stability, but it had some bubbles in it.  The bubbles created some lines while I colored that I wasn't too happy with, but it is fine for a first try.  I also want to keep improving my whimsy faces, so that they look even better.  Practice, practice, practice I must do.  If you see a lot of faces here, you will know why.  

I want to turn this girl into a small quilt.  I have the perfect fabric picked out for the edges, from my snow dyed stash. Hopefully I will have her done by the end of the month.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Janelle 

A visual View of the week

I have been working on more pages in my art journal this week.  I do enjoy working and experimenting in my hand made journal. I have also been making gelatin prints.  They are so fun to make. I love the feel of drawing and printing on gelatin.  Now that I have all the prints I have even more paper for collage or backgrounds.  You can never have too many painted papers!

This page has a heart gratitude book.   I made pages for my family members and wrote notes on each page.  All the pages are decorated differently.  This page is from Lifebook.  

On this page I sprayed Dylusions ink and dropped acrylic inks and sprayed the page with water.  Then I created flowers from the blobs.  I wanted to experiment with glazes and negative painting. It is a fun process and one that I will come back to again. 

Here are a few of the gelatin prints that I made. 

I hope that you enjoy the visual view of my week.
Have a great weekend,
Janelle

Journal Goodness

I have some more art journal pages to share with you.  Journal pages allow a wide variety of expression, practice, experimentation, and fun.  I recommend that everyone try some method of visual expression whatever that may look like for you. 

Have a great weekend.
Janelle

Cotton Dyeing

I want to share the rest of the dyed pieces of cotton that I have made this winter.

The first few are all dyed with very little water, and normal temperatures.  The colors come out much more intense.  The patterning comes from crinkling the fabric into a loose pile. The fabric was dyed with the exact dye batch that I used for the snow dyed pieces I shared earlier.

Please excuse the wrinkles, my ironing board doesn't work very well.  I really need to get a custom ironing surface designed for fabric rather than clothing. 

The next pieces of fabrics were snow dyed with single colors of dye. I used colors that were mixes rather than just primary.  I wanted to see how the colors would come out in the cold conditions.  The dyes that are mixes contain more than one single color of dye and different dye colors strike at different times during the process. I wanted to see how many colors from the mix would show up on the fabric. Long explanation over: enjoy seeing these four pieces of snow dyed cotton.  

Now I get the fun of using these fabrics in fiber art.  I hope that you have a great weekend.
Janelle

Seascapes

I have been working on a couple of art quilts the past few weeks. These two are both seascapes and are pieces that I made because of the art quilting group I belong to.  The first one is a practice piece that we learned how to do in our group and the second one is a challenge quilt to continue on with landscapes.

After I sewed the fabric down and quilted it, I added paint and shells.  I also made a mix of silk roving and Angelina fibers and quilted it on for the sea foam.   This is a happy little quilt that reminds me of sunny summer days.   

Each group member picked a calendar photo and used it for inspiration.  I used raw edge applique and sewed and then quilted my chosen fabrics.  I have started adding paint to enhance the scene.  I plan to add more paint and then other embellishments to complete it.  I'll share it when it is done.

I'm stuck in frigid weather right now, but dreaming of swimming in a warm sea.  What are you dreaming of this season?
Janelle